Off the Beaten Track

For lack of anything else interesting to say at the moment I have copy and pasted a little essay about Turkey that I sent to the fine folks at the TEFL Institute in an attempt to make Turkey a more popular teaching destination...As I've mentioned before, most people think only of Istanbul when they think about Turkey - here are a few snippets about places that I've visited since coming here that are far more interesting than Istanbul in my opinion:

"You’re moving where???"

That was the common refrain when I informed my friends and family about my decision to teach in a foreign country.

“Yes.  Turkey.  I’m moving to Ankara, the capital city” was my response. 

The next most common refrain was, “Wait a minute, isn’t Istanbul the capital city??”

And so, the last few weeks preparing for my big adventure included not only fitting the entire contents of my life into 23kg of allowable weight but also telling people a little bit about this wonderful country and its people.

Alright – so here are some basic facts:  the actual name of the country is the Republic of Turkey.  The spoken language is Turkish.  It’s a fairly young country; founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, but it has a rich history going back many thousands of years.  The main religion is Islam.  It’s a democratic and secular country (well, kind of) with a population of approximately 74 million.  It is the 37^th largest country in the world in terms of land size (when you compare this to Canada which is the 2^nd largest country in the world with a population of only 34 million it’s a little bit mind boggling!!).

To the left is the Turkish flag - it bears the cresent moon and star which comes from the Ottoman Empire.  It was adopted in 1844.  During the Ottoman times, there were many flags with several variations of the moon and star combo - green flags symbolized religious institutions and red ones secular institutions.   

So now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let me tell you about places that are NOT Istanbul.  Don’t get me wrong, Istanbul is an amazing and wonderful city, but everyone goes there!  I want to tell you about a few places in Turkey that are off the beaten track.

One of the most interesting places I’ve visited so far is Şanlıurfa (or Urfa for short) in the southeastern part of Turkey.   The history of this intriguing city goes back to about the 4^th century BC – however, there have been archeological discoveries dating back to 9000BC!  This city is reportedly the birth place of the Prophet Abraham and also Job.  Balıklıgöl, or Lake of Fish, is a serene and beautiful place of worship built in the 1100s AD.  Legend says that when Abraham was being persecuted, his arch nemesis Nimrod threw him to his death into a pool of fire.  Only, the flames turned into water and the wood into fish and Abraham survived.   The mosque and pool are built on the site where this event supposedly happened and the fish that live inthis pool today are considered to be ancestors of these original fish.  Local legend also says that eating these fish will cause blindness.

Close by to Urfa is a small village called Harran.  This is the only place on Earth where you can still see original ‘bee hive’ style houses.  Although not really used for daily life they still dominate the landscape.  They are designed to keep the warmth in during the cold desert nights and to keep cool during the hot, dry, desert days (although, when I visited in December, and slept in one of these bee hives, there was a distinct lack of heat...).  Harran is also the site of Islam’s first university.  Built in the 8th or 9th century, it was a centre for translation, astronomy (the astronomy tower still stands today), and medicine.  One of the pivotal battles during the Crusades was also fought in Harran.

Traditional Eastern Turkish dinner

University's Astronomy tower...
unfortunately due to ongoing
excavations of this site we couldn't get any closer...

Traditional Beehive houses - only exist in Harran today

Moving further west, there is a village called Kayaköy near the city of Fethiye, which was completely abandoned after 1923.  The history of this village dates back to the 4th century BC.  It was built on the site of the Lycian city Karmylassos and was populated by Greek Christians.  After 1923, these Christians were forced out of their homes and back to Greece during a “population exchange” (this was a nice way to say deportation of Greek Christians).  The city today is protected by the Turkish Government and UNESCO as a historical site.



Olüdeniz - the most photographed beach in Europe!



By far the most interesting place in Turkey is Kapadokya – the Land of Fairy Chimneys.  This place is so unreal you feel like you are on another planet when you arrive.  After miles of flatness on the drive from Ankara, you start to see some undulating hills and valleys, and then as you turn a final corner, you are greeted by spectacular natural fairy chimneys.  These chimneys are actually a result of volcanic ash covered by basalt.  They are a spectacular natural wonder, however, what makes them even more interesting here in Kapadokya is that they were hollowed out and used as homes and churches.  Göreme National Park is another UNESCO World Heritage Site and is definitely worth exploring!

So, you can see, there is definitely more to this amazing country – especially if you take a walk off the beaten track.